Surveying the Transgender Scene

For the next six months to a year, the DC Trans Coalition (DCTC) will be surveying members of the District’s transgender community in hopes of obtaining a fresh perspective on the major concerns facing transgender people.

DCTC hopes to collect at least 500 surveys from self-identified transgender people, particularly young women of color, in order to assess which city services are transgender-friendly and which are lacking. The surveys should produce quantifiable data that can be shared with service providers and officials who regularly interact with the transgender community, says transgender activist Ruby Corado of DCTC.

Ruby Corado(File photo)

”We definitely want to make this available to anyone who is interested in finding out data on the transgender community in Washington, D.C.,” she says. ”We are hopeful that government agencies will be looking at this data.”

With a similar survey undertaken in 2000, Corado told Metro Weekly in 2010, as the first steps were taken in this new effort, it’s time for an update.

According to Elijah Edelman of DCTC, the aim of the project, which will continue for at least six more months, is to gain insight into the transgender community’s access to culturally competent and trans-sensitive health care, employment, housing, education and immigration services. Edelman says the survey, being distributed now both online and in person, in both English and Spanish, can serve as guidance to service providers and transgender advocacy groups to define the obstacles facing the transgender community and propose practical solutions.

”I think advocacy is probably the No.1 goal of the research,” he says.